Chapter 3: Measuring biophysical quantities and the use of indicators
Climate change
do not measure the status and trends of
indicators are used
scales, but not as a
and
biodiversity, but are an indication of the size
to
time series.
(Nutrient
and trends of the pressures on biodiversity
the
of
Climate
change
and often feed into biodiversity assessments
biodiversity to a
models
are
at national scales in State of Environment
wide
audience
globally available
Reports.
(public
and
for a range of
Pollution eutrophication level assessment) Human indicators
footprint (e.g.
Human
Appropriated Net Primary Productivity
-
HANPP,
Living Planet Index -LPI, ecological debt) Levels of use (harvesting, abstraction) Alien invasive species
They
are
frequently
used
in
communicate status
communicating biodiversity status and trends
policy), consensus
future
and many are relevant to Biodiversity 2010
methods
periods,
target
development, most
these pressures to
To ecosystem services: When linked to
are
biodiversity
particular species (e.g. fish) or ecosystems
change
changes remains a
(e.g. wetlands) which provide or support
Composite
gap.
ecosystem services, these measures are useful
footprint indicators
indicators of ecosystem service levels and
are
declines. They are also used to indicate the
disaggregateable
sustainability of ecosystem service use and supply To valuation: Changes in ecosystem service levels lend themselves to valuation of the losses or gains in services. If information is available on threshold effects for particular services then these indicators can be useful in determining economic risk.
are
sensitive
in
to
increasingly
time linking
Some measures of pollution available globally and over time (e.g. nitrogen deposition). Composite footprint indicators available globally and
over
periods.
15
time